ATP Tour

20 years on: Agassi's final stand in New York

The 2006 US Open. Andre Agassi knew the end was near. At 36 years old, the American was competing in just his eighth event of the season and was at No. 39 in the PIF ATP Rankings, having been inside the Top 10 only a year earlier. Injuries, particularly the back problems that had followed him through the latter stages of his career, had limited his schedule, and the US Open was set to be his final tournament.

Agassi had already experienced almost everything tennis could offer. He had won the US Open in 1994 and 1999, completed the career Grand Slam, reached World No. 1 and triumphed at the Nitto ATP Finals. A year earlier, at 35, he had made another run to the final in New York, where he lost to Roger Federer. Now, competing in just his second major of the season after reaching the third round at Wimbledon, Agassi entered his finale at Flushing Meadows with uncertainty on what he could deliver.

First came Andrei Pavel, with Agassi producing an assured display to advance in four sets. Waiting in the second round was Marcos Baghdatis, the 21-year-old Cypriot who had established himself as one of the game's emerging stars after reaching the Australian Open final and Wimbledon semi-finals earlier that season. Agassi was at the other end of his career, but on Arthur Ashe Stadium that night, the veteran produced his last great performance.

Agassi took the first two sets 6-4, 6-4 and looked in control but then-World No. 8 Baghdatis responded by raising his level to win the third set 6-3. Agassi moved 4-0 ahead in the fourth, but his physical problems began to surface. This time, it wasn't his back that was troubling him.

“I knew I had to play well tonight and I got up two sets to love but he raised his game,” Agassi said afterwards. “I got up 4-0 in the fourth set and it wasn't my back getting tight but it was my throat, my breathing.”

Baghdatis won six of the next seven games to take the fourth set 7-5 and force a deciding set. Both players were beginning to feel the effects of the contest, with Baghdatis also struggling physically, but Agassi continued to find enough to stay in it. After rallying from a break down at the start of the decider, the American found his chance at 5-5, breaking Baghdatis before serving for the match.

The final point came shortly before 1 a.m. on Arthur Ashe Stadium. Baghdatis sent a backhand long and Agassi had his victory: 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 7-5 after three hours and 48 minutes. For Agassi, it was his final Grand Slam victory and the last match he would ever win.

“I just fought hard,” Agassi said. “And to see someone struggle physically at the end is not ideal for such a high standard to end, but I felt so good today and what a time to feel it. This just feels the world to me.”

Two days later, Agassi returned to Arthur Ashe Stadium for his third-round match against Benjamin Becker. By then, the physical toll of the Baghdatis match was clear. Becker, a 25-year-old German, won in four sets to bring Agassi's 21-year career to an end.

The result was not what the crowd had hoped for, but the atmosphere inside Ashe Stadium made clear what Agassi's career had meant to American tennis and to the New York fans who had followed him for more than two decades. After the match, a tearful Agassi addressed the capacity crowd.

“The scoreboard said I lost today, but what the scoreboard doesn’t say is what it is I have found,” Agassi said. “Over the last 21 years, I have found loyalty: You have pulled for me on the court and also in life. I have found inspiration: You have willed me to succeed, sometimes even in my lowest moments. And I have found generosity: You have given me your shoulders to stand on, to reach for my dreams, dreams I could have never reached without you.”

_{^{Andre Agassi following his final match. Photo: Getty Images}}

That is why, 20 years later, the Baghdatis match remains such an important part of Agassi's farewell. The defeat to Becker ended his career, but the victory against Baghdatis captured it better.

There was Agassi, 36, facing a player 15 years his junior and one of the leading young stars in the game. He had taken control, lost it, struggled physically and then found enough to force his way through a deciding set. The circumstances were very different from the nights when he had lifted the US Open trophy, but the competitiveness was still there.

When Baghdatis' backhand finally landed long, ATP No. 1 Club Member Agassi was still standing. It was his final major win, his last victory as a professional and one last memorable night in New York. Two decades on, that is the image that remains from Agassi's final US Open: not only the farewell that followed, but the five-set fight that came before it.